Data Sheet 26 Rev. 1.2, 2015-01-12
TLS203B0
Application Information
providing a low frequency noise pole. The noise pole provided by such a bypass capacitor will lower the output
voltage noise in the considered bandwidth. For a given output voltage actual numbers of the output voltage noise
will - next to the bypass capacitor itself - be dependent on the capacitance of the applied output capacitor CQ and
its ESR: In case of the TLS203B0EJV / TLS203B0LDV applied with unity gain (i.e. VQ= 1.22V) the usage of a
bypass capacitor of 10 nF in combination with a (low ESR) ceramic CQ of 10 µF will result in output voltage noise
numbers of typical 41 µVRMS. This Output Noise level can be reduced to typical 28 µVRMS under the same
conditions by adding a small resistor of ~250 m in series to the 10 µF ceramic output capacitor acting as
additional ESR. A reduction of the output voltage noise can also be achieved by increasing capacitance of the
output capacitor. For CQ= 22 µF (ceramic low ESR) the output voltage noise will be typically around 29 µVRMS and
can again be further lowered to 24 µVRMS by adding a small resistance of ~250 m in series to CQ. In case of the
fix voltage version TLS203B0EJV33 / TLS203B0LDV33 the output voltage noise for the described cases vary from
45 µVRMS down to 30 µVRMS. For further details please also see “Output Voltage Noise 10)” on Page 12,, of the
Electrical Characteristics. Please note that next to reducing the output voltage noise level the usage of a bypass
capacitor has the additional benefit of improving transient response which will be also explained in the next
chapter. However one needs to take into consideration that on the other hand the regulator start-up time is
proportional to the size of the bypass capacitor and slows down to values around 15 ms when using a 10 nF
bypass capacitor in combination with a 10 µF CQ output capacitor.
6.4 Output Capacitance and Transient Response
The TLS203B0 is designed to be stable with a wide range of output capacitors. The ESR of the output capacitor
is an essential parameter with regard to stability, most notably with small capacitors. A minimum output capacitor
of 3.3 µF with an ESR of 3 or less is recommended to prevent oscillations. Like in general for LDO’s the output
transient response of the TLS203B0 will be a function of the output capacitance. Larger values of output
capacitance decrease peak deviations and thus improve transient response for larger load current changes.
Bypass capacitors, used to decouple individual components powered by the TLS203B0 will increase the effective
output capacitor value. Please note that with the usage of bypass capacitors for low noise operation either larger
values of output capacitors may be needed or a minimum ESR requirement of CQ may have to be considered (see
also typical performance graph “ESR(CQ) with CBYP = 10 nF versus Output Capacitance CQ” on Page 21 as
example). In conjunction with the usage of a 10 nF bypass capacitor an output capacitor CQ 6.8 µF is
recommended. The benefit of a bypass capacitor to the transient response performance is impressive and
illustrated as one example in Figure 8 where the transient response of the TLS203B0EJV33 to one and the same
load step from 100 mA to 300 mA is shown with and without a 10 nF bypass capacitor: for the given configuration
of CQ = 10 µF with no bypass capacitor the load step will settle in the range of less than 100 µs while for
CQ= 10 µF in conjunction with a 10 nF bypass capacitor the same load step will settle in the range of 10 µs. Due
to the shorter reaction time of the regulator by adding the bypass capacitor not only the settling time improves but
also output voltage deviations due to load steps are sharply reduced.
Figure 8 Influence of CBYP: example of transient response to one and the same load step with and
without CBYP of 10 nF (IQ: 100 mA to 300 mA, TLS203B0EJV33)